The Elephant in the Room
by JadeW4life
Summary: "Cat never brought up the reasons why Jade needed cheering up. She never acknowledged the elephant in the room unless Jade did so first. She talked about anything and everything but; school, movies, candy, clothes, celebrities. Jade appreciated that." / Or, how Jade handles losing Beck following The Worst Couple. Cade friendship, and a little Bade. Rated T for language. R&R!
1. Doors, Part One

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Victorious, contrary to popular belief.

"Ten."

Jade could barely understand the word that had managed to escape her mouth. Part of her was still in denial. Part of her was still waiting for him to open the door. She wanted him to hug her or kiss her or talk to her or do _anything_ to let her know that he still cared. She wanted to hear him apologize and she wanted to hear his shitty excuses for not following her when she walked out of Tori Vega's front door.

But she knew that wouldn't happen.

She knew they'd been drifting apart for months now. Every conversation they had seemed to turn into an argument. They'd always bickered about little things in the past, but those were nothing compared to the seemingly constant screaming-matches they'd been having recently. She knew it wasn't entirely his fault, but he'd been _so_ distant lately. It felt like he had time for everyone except for her, especially Vega. He canceled on her so frequently because of "homework," but just last week he spent three nights in a row helping Tori with her audition. But Jade understood why. Beck was tired of her. She's not an easy person to be around. No matter how hard she tried, she always ended up flying off the handle at the smallest of things. She couldn't blame him for wanting to be around someone else.

She couldn't blame him for wanting to be _with_ someone else.

Whenever he tried to bring up the tension between them, Jade couldn't talk about it. She refused to. She already knew everything he'd say:

" _All we do is fight"_

" _I'm tired of arguing about_ everything"

" _I can't do this anymore"_

" _I'm not happy"_

" _I can't be with you anymore"_

Sure, there was always the chance that the conversation would end positively, but Jade knew that that wouldn't happen. Too many people had left her for her to genuinely believe that Beck would stay any longer. She figured if she avoided the conversation long enough, he'd give up. She thought that maybe if they ignored the issues long enough, they'd go away, and they could be happy again. But Jade knew she was only kidding herself. Part of her wasn't surprised at all when the door didn't open.

But knowing didn't make it hurt any less.

Knowing didn't stop her from reaching for the door handle. Jade wanted to open it again. Breaking up wasn't really what she'd planned on doing. When she walked outside, she expected him to follow. She didn't realize he'd taken her seriously until she uttered the number "four." For the first time in a long time, Jade had absolutely no idea what to do. She wanted to open the door again and… do what exactly? Tell him she didn't mean it? Beg for him to stay? Have the conversation she'd been trying to avoid all along? It'd be pointless. Beck had obviously made up his mind. If she went back in there, she'd only make a fool of herself. Keeping her dignity, she walked away from the door, pulled the keys to Beck's truck out of her pocket, and sat in the driver's seat. For a moment, she contemplated walking back inside. _It's not too late,_ she thought to herself. But she knew that it was.

Jade drove with no destination at first. She contemplated where she would go as the first tear fell, involuntarily. That was when she remembered that she was driving Beck's truck. If she went home now, she'd have to face him again when she returned the vehicle later on. She changed directions and headed towards Beck's RV. The drive that felt like hours was only about six or seven minutes in reality. Once she arrived, Jade parked the truck in Beck's driveway and sent him a text.

 **Your truck's outside the rv. keys are in the mailbox.**

 **-Jade**

His reply was almost instant.

 **Can we talk about this?**

 **-Beck**

 _We could've earlier if you opened the door._

 **No.**

 **-Jade**

She watched the typing icon come and go. He would write something, then erase it, then write something else. After five minutes he replied.

 **Youre being childish**

 **-Beck**

 _And you're being a dick, so I guess we're even._

 **Drop it.**

 **-Jade**

As she began walking in the direction of her house, she tried her hardest to keep her composure. Though a constant stream of tears was falling down her face, she managed not to become hysterical. Her phone buzzed a few more times, but she didn't look at the messages. He already had his chance. It was too late for excuses or a makeup. She was done. She knew he was unhappy, she knew he was tired of fighting all the time, and honestly, she was too. Jade agreed with him, but that didn't make her feel any better. She missed the old times when they used to sit and laugh and have a good time together for more than five minutes. She missed the way they used to be before everything turned to shit. As she reminisced, the tears began to fall much more heavily. Her phone began to ring, interrupting her thoughts. Jade quickly wiped her tears and cleared her throat before answering.

"When I said I didn't want to talk about it with you, I meant it. So stop fucking texting me before I attach your stupid RV to the truck and detach it at the top of a steep hill," Jade hissed.

"Jadey? Are you crying?" a familiar voice questioned hesitantly on the other end.

Jade sighed. "I'm fine, Cat. What do you want?"

"Do you want to come over? I'm in the car with my mom now because I asked her to pick me up a little bit after you left because cards wasn't really fun anymore and everyone was kinda sad and I thought you might be sad so then I thought we could have a sleepover and watch movies but you could pick the movies and mayb-"

"Yeah, Cat. I don't really want to go home anyway." Jade admitted, cutting the redhead off. Usually, when she was upset, she just headed over to the RV and confided in Beck. But before that - before Beck - she spent the night at Cat's house. Beck always asked her what was wrong and gave her his opinions and advice, but sometimes she didn't want that. Sometimes she just wanted to rant and be angry, sometimes she just wanted to cry and be sad, sometimes she just wanted to _exist_. But she didn't want to be alone. Cat understood that perfectly. Cat never brought up the reasons why Jade needed cheering up. She never acknowledged the elephant in the room unless Jade did so first. She talked about anything and everything but; school, movies, candy, clothes, celebrities. Jade appreciated that. She never had to explain herself around Cat, and Cat didn't ever have to explain herself around Jade.

"Yay! Do you need a ride? We can pick you up!" Cat offered excitedly.

"Yeah, actually." Jade mentally kicked herself for returning Beck's truck. His RV is really only walking distance from Tori's house, and even that takes about thirty minutes.

* * *

As the ending credits for _Titanic_ rolled, Jade found herself wiping the tears from her eyes. Looking to her left, she saw a concerned Cat staring at the couch cushion beneath her, playing with her hair. They've watched the movie together thousands of times and Jade never cried at the ending. Even Cat only teared up at it every now and again. Cat wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do. Jade could get mad if she said the wrong thing, and the last thing she wanted was to upset the girl even more.

After minutes of silence between the two, Cat uttered, "My mom always says that Jack could've fit on the door." Maybe she could start a conversation about the movie. Jade loved to pick apart films, so maybe they could criticize it together or something.

When Jade stayed quiet, the girl continued, "I think he could've fit on the door too but he just decided not to try. I wonder why he didn't. What do you think?" Cat looked up at her friend.

"I think that Beck could've opened the door. He just decided not to try," Jade replied without missing a beat. Cat's mouth fell open for a brief moment as Jade turned to look her in the eye. She was taken aback. It was very rare that she and Jade had serious conversations about her problems. She never wanted to, and Cat was okay with it. She just wanted Jade to be happy, and she always seemed happiest when they ignored her problems.

"Are we... do you want to talk about it?" Cat asked hesitantly.

Jade's answer was almost instantaneous, "No."

Cat handed Jade the remote and watched as her friend found a horrible looking movie to watch. They laughed as they critiqued it together until they both eventually fell asleep. Cat was mid-sentence (albeit, a very long one) when she heard her friend lightly snoring. While she was slightly offended that Jade found her sentence boring enough to sleep to, she was happy. She was happy because Jade was laughing with her a few minutes prior, which meant that she'd fallen asleep (at least a little) happy. Jade was happy, and Cat's job was done.

 **A/N: Well, folks, there you have it! My first actual Victorious fanfic! Please review and let me know how you feel about it, and whether or not I should continue with the other post-breakup episodes or just leave it as a one-shot :)**


	2. Doors, Part Two

**A/N: Thank you guys for the wonderful reviews! Reading them totally made my day! Personally, I like both Bade AND Cade. I'm definitely a hardcore Bade shipper but I think EVERYONE ships Cade juuuust a little bit lol. The romance can be cute at times, but I think Cat and Jade's friendship is just absolutely adorable. Ok ok, enough gabbing, I'll see you at the bottom!**

* * *

Jade woke up on Cat's living room couch, not remembering where she was for a brief moment. The house was empty. Sitting up groggily, she reached out and pulled her phone off of the coffee table in front of her. It was 10:43 AM.

 _I guess school's out of the question. Oh well._

Looking underneath the time, she saw that all of her notifications were almost exclusively people asking her about Beck. She had nine texts sent last night from Beck, a text from Andre which was also sent last night, and two sent from Cat this morning.

 **hi jadey ik im not there but DONT WORRY im just at school! i woulda stayed home w/ u but i had a toad in scriptwriting im sooo sorry :(**

 **-Cat**

 **hahaha omg! i meant to type TEST not TOAD thts sooo funny lol xD i was just thinkin abt how toads must be rly sad whenever people call them frogs :( poor toads**

 **-Cat**

Jade quickly typed out a response.

 **1\. You dont need to skip school for me**

 **2\. Im almost certain that toads dont know english, so dont fret**

 **3\. Your emojis make me want to pull my hair out. Seriously**

 **-Jade**

Cat replied about two minutes later.

 **OMG ur awake! hiiiii :)**

 **a. r u kidding ur in like 4 of my classes! theatre was soooo boring w/o u ugh i almost fell asleep -.- i wanna leave at lunch!**

 **b. omg i totally forgot tht they speak toad! i wish i spoke toad :( but all the songs i like are in english! omg do u think there are toad songs o.O**

 **c. u looooove my emojis ;) :P**

 **-Cat**

Jade smiled at the message on her screen.

 **Whatever. Dork.**

 **-Jade**

She hesitated, _I really, really shouldn't ask her._ Then again, she really, really wanted to know.

 **Are people talking about what happened?**

 **-Jade**

 **oh, um..yeah :/ its almost all anyones talking about. im sorry :(**

 **-Cat**

Jade sighed. Of course, everyone was talking about it. It was practically trending on TheSlap when they changed their relationship statuses. They were officially broken up now. _Girls are probably swarming him already._ She imagined Beck flirting with someone new. Her heart grew heavy and she felt like she was mourning something. In a way, she was. Beck was still alive but whatever relationship they had was completely gone. Maybe they could stand talking to each other again eventually, but she couldn't see them being friends like they were before they dated. She definitely couldn't imagine them ever being as close as they were during the almost three years they spent as a couple. It felt as if everything they shared together was pointless. She opened up to him about so many things that they'd probably never even mention again. That relationship that they spent so long building was just, totally gone. Jade began to think back on her favorite moments with Beck and smiled.

 _"Beck, stop it! He really wasn't trying to hurt your feelings!" Jade followed Beck as he began to walk out of her dining room, leaving his plate half eaten. Beck turned around, his face slightly red. Her younger brother laughed as Mr. West stood up from the table, and Jade's stepmother watched the scene in shock. Beck pointed a finger at his girlfriend's father._

 _"You, sir, are not a very nice man! I'll have you know th_ _at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Clown College is a perfectly practical university, and I'll go to the damn school if I want to!" Beck shouted at the man who was red in the face._

 _"I don't care where you go, but you're not dragging my daughter along with you on a campus tour of_ Clown _school! She's not going to attend a university for circus clowns! I won't pay for it!" Mr. West shouted back even louder than Beck._

 _"Well, why not?! Steve-O from Jackass went to clown school!" Jade shot back at her father with an indignant look on her face._

 _"Steve-O from Jackass is NOT who you should be modeling your life after!" He screamed at the girl. Beck grabbed Jade's hand and began stalking towards the door._

 _"Come on, Jade. There's just no reasoning with this guy! It's useless!" Beck and Jade walked all the way to Beck's truck, both looking enraged. Slamming the doors closed as they sat down, they breathed heavily. They turned to look at each other and both immediately started to smile._

 _"Clown school?!" Jade shouted as she began to laugh, unable to contain it any longer._

 _"Steve-O! You're ridiculous!"_ _Beck laughed hysterically right along side her. Jade wiped the tears from her eyes with one hand while holding her stomach with the other as Beck hunched over the steering wheel and tried to catch his breath in between laughs. After a few minutes, the couple was able to calm down enough to form cohesive sentences._

 _"I told you I could cause a bigger scene than you did last night," Beck said, still chuckling lightly._

 _"You know what, you win. You totally win. I thought your mom's thirty-minute rant was bad, but it doesn't even come close to you storming out mid-meal," Jade remarked as she tried to suppress her laughter. "Oh my god, my dad thinks I want to go to clown college now!" They both began to cackle yet again. When they finally had their laughter under control, Beck turned and looked at his girlfriend._

 _"While that freakout was pretty hilarious, I still can't believe how funny my mom's face was when you told her you were planning on dying your hair. She lectured us for like half an hour about how 'dying your hair leads to drugs, sex, and alcohol,'" Beck smiled._

 _"Of all the things you could spend your money on, why would you waste it on something that makes you look like a teenage hooligan?!" Jade did her best impersonation of Beck's mom and they both giggled._

 _"For the record," Beck began, "I think you'd look pretty cool with black hair."_

 _"I wasn't being serious though, I was just lying for the bet. You know, I try to freak out your parents, you try to freak out mine. This isn't a new thing," she reminded him. He rolled his eyes._

 _"I know, I know, I was just saying. Maybe you should actually dye it. You know, for shits and giggles," he suggested. Jade faked an offended expression._

 _"For shits and giggles? Really? You think I'd only dye my hair as a joke? Do you not think I would seriously dye my hair?!" she challenged._

 _"Twenty bucks says you'd go back to brown in like a month" Beck joked along._

 _Jade glared at him playfully as she commanded,"Drive me to the store."_

As Jade relived the memory from last summer, she unconsciously picked up a lock of her hair and twiddled it in her fingers. Looking down, she studied the jet black color she'd become so accustomed to. She hadn't even noticed she'd been crying until a tear drop landed on her thumb. Reminiscing didn't help at all. All it did was remind her that they'd never get those moments back; they'd never make any new ones, not with each other at least. He'd make new memories with some new girl. Better memories. Jade began typing a new message.

 **So girls must be throwing themselves at him then huh?**

 **-Jade**

She quickly added,

 **Not that i really care about it or anything.**

 **-Jade**

 _Yeah real smooth, Jade._

 **idk, i dont think he came to school today...**

 **-Cat**

 **its ok to care tho**

 **like i mean... you dont have to lie to me**

 **-Cat**

Jade sighed, knowing that she'd probably slightly offended her friend. She knew she didn't have to keep her guard up around Cat.

 **I know. Sorry. Force of habit.**

 **-Jade**

As she anticipated the next message, Jade heard a knock. _Ugh._ She tried ignoring it at first, not wanting to leave the comfort of Cat's sofa, but the knocking persisted. After a minute or two, she finally gave in. She wiped her tears and slightly primped her hair as she rose from the couch.

"I don't care what you're selling! _No one_ is buying!" she shouted as she marched in the direction of the front door. Swinging it open, she instantly recognized the face of the person standing in front of her.

"Andre said you didn't go to school and you weren't at either of your parents' houses when I checked so, I figured you'd be here," the fluffy-haired boy explained cautiously, twiddling his thumbs. His hair was a mess, there were bags under his reddened eyes, and he was wearing the same clothes as the night before. It appeared as though he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep.

"No," Jade replied, piercing him with her icy blue eyes as they locked onto his brown ones.

"N-No?" Beck asked with a confused expression, not quite understanding what the girl who stood before him meant.

"You don't get to do this," she began with a bit more fire in her voice, "You don't get to walk up to me with your _stupid_ face to apologize and pretend like nothing happened. You had the chance to do all of this last night and it's not my fault that you decided not to take it. You don't just get to-" she felt a small lump in her throat as tears began to form in her eyes, "-to _fix_ this. I'm not letting you make me feel bad for you just because you came over here looking like shit." She reached up and wiped her eyes just before the tears had a chance to fall. _Don't let him see you cry._

Beck was stunned. He stood there bumbling, not sure how to respond, "I... J-Jade... That's not what I was-"

"That's exactly what you were trying to do!" she spat back. Beck ran his fingers through his hair as he closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

"Can you just... can we just have a conversation?" He pleaded.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" She sarcastically chuckled through her words, "Is this frustrating for you? Is Beck having a bit of a tough time after breaking up with me through a door in front of five other people?"

" _You_ were the one who walked out on _me_!" Beck fired back at her angrily.

"That's correct! And I also installed about thirty locks on the outside of the door when it closed, which prevented you from opening it back up, right?" Jade retorted, crossing her arms expectantly. The boy stayed quiet and glared at her, not knowing how to counter the point she made.

"Yeah. That's what I thought," she said, breaking the silence. She tilted her head down towards their shoes. His eyes became softer when he noticed that her voice was laced with more sadness than anger.

Beck reached out towards the girl in front of him. "Jade, I didn't mean-"

"Don't," she commanded shakily, cutting him off as she took a step backward. When she looked back up, he watched as a tear drop clung to her cheek before it fell and hit the concrete beneath them. "Go home."

"Jade, I-"

"Please, Beck, will you just-" she stopped mid sentence and sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose, "Please go home." Beck nodded his head, finally understanding that he'd get nowhere by pestering her.

"I'll see you around," he said before he walked away, his head hanging low. Jade shut the door and leaned against it, cursing herself for every tear that fell. She was supposed to be strong, so she didn't understand how she wasn't able to deal with this. She was angry. She was angry at herself for being so miserable, she was angry at Beck for leaving, and she was pissed off that she was stupid enough to believe that he'd do anything different. People leaving was something she'd been used to her whole life; her only constant had ever been Cat.

She was actually surprised that Cat wasn't mad at her. Ever since Jade had started dating Beck, she'd unintentionally began drifting further and further away from the girl she considered to be her best friend. Sure, they texted every now and again, but the times they hung out with just each other were few and far between. Jade could tell how excited Cat was when she accepted her invite last night, even though it wasn't necessarily under the greatest circumstances in history. She'd blown her off so many times in the past just to be with Beck, and there she was, at Cat's house for the first time in months, crying over the same boy. She hated herself for that, and she wasn't quite sure how Cat didn't hate her too. Jade couldn't genuinely say she'd react the same way if she were in Cat's shoes. _What a horrible friend._

Pulling her out of her thoughts of self-pity, her phone began to ring. A picture of the bubbly redhead that had just been swirling around in her thoughts popped up on the screen. _Speak of the devil._ Jade tapped the green circle and held her phone to her ear.

"What do you want?" She answered. It was obvious in her voice that she'd been crying.

"Jadey, can you come pick me up? I was serious about the whole lunch thing. School is _reeeeally_ boring without you," Cat asked. Jade rolled her eyes.

"We go to a performing arts school. I'm not sure things can ever really be boring," She replied matter-of-factly.

"Please? There's nothing going on and without you, I'm really really really _really_ bored," the girl whined on the other end of the phone.

"Ugh, Cat, I don't even have my car with me," Jade groaned.

"Your mom's house is like a five-minute walk from mine!" Cat argued.

"Cat, I'm really not in the mood to-"

"Jadey please come pick me up, _please_ , or I swear I'll die of boredom in my next class. Do you want me to _die_?! You don't want me to _die_ , do you?!" Cat begged her black-haired friend.

"Fine!" Jade shouted irritatedly in defeat. "I'll be there in like 20 minutes."

"Kay kay!" She replied, giggling. Jade could hear the smile in her voice. She hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"I'm really sorry, Cat," the raven-haired girl swallowed her pride and apologized. Cat may have pretended not to mind, but Jade knew the distance between them must have hurt her, and she was to blame. She regretted all the times she chose Beck over Cat, and the fact that Cat didn't even bring it up just made her feel twice as guilty.

"You always yell, silly, I don't care!" Cat responded laughing. Jade sighed.

"No, that's really not what I mea-"

"OMG! I gotta go now - Robbie just downloaded this software that makes your head look tiny! I'll see you when you get here!" Cat ended the call before she had a chance to explain herself. _Maybe another time._ Jade wiped her tears, took a deep breath, and began getting herself ready to pick up her friend from school.

* * *

 **A/N: Welp, what'd you guys think? My plan is to do every episode leading up to Tori Fixes Beck and Jade. I decided to make The Worst Couple a two-parter because I really wanted to explore more of the immediate aftermath of the breakup, but Andre's Horrible Girl is next, I promise. The next chapter will also be FLOODED with Cade! Please review :)**


	3. Everybody Talks

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but here's chapter 3!**

 _"Son, your zipper."_

 _"Jiminy!"_

Mr. Gibbons looked at a text he'd just received and remarked, "Huh, looks like the earthquake didn't affect the building that the banquet is in. I should probably get going, I'm already late. Do you kids think you can still stay here and watch Coober for me?"

"I guess so," Cat replied, still a bit shaken from everything that happened earlier.

"Yeah, I can stay," Jade nodded.

Beck slowly began backing towards the door as he explained, "Actually, Robbie and I have another... thing." Jade rolled her eyes as Robbie confusedly began walking towards Beck.

"I'll walk you boys out then," Mr. Gibbons said with a smile, oblivious to the tension in the room, "I should be back around midnight or so. You girls have fun!" The three of them walked out of the front door, conversing with each other about buying Robbie new pants. Sighing, Cat sat on the couch with a tired look on her face and stared down at the ground.

As she sat down next to her redheaded friend, Jade scoffed, "I'm glad they're gone. Can you believe how condescending Beck was the whole time he was here?"

"Really?" Cat asked in disbelief, looking up at the girl.

"What? Do you not think he was condescending?" Jade wondered.

"You're really complaining about Beck right now?! My mom could've been fired if that earthquake didn't hit and it totally would've been your fault!" The smaller girl shouted. Jade was being so incredibly selfish and Cat was tired of trying to pretend like things were fine.

"Cat, calm down. I fixed it," Jade tried reasoning.

"But you didn't!" Cat said, standing up. "I texted Robbie and he hired someone to come fix it, and then _you_ fought with him and broke something else!" She felt the rage building up inside of her stomach. Before Jade had a chance to argue, Cat screamed something else,"I'm literally always there for you! But whenever I ask you one tiny little thing, it's always 'No, Cat. It's fine, Cat. You don't know what you're talking about, Cat.' All I wanted was to hang out with you and watch TV shows and maybe make some popcorn or something but did that matter to you at all? No! Of course, it didn't matter because it wasn't something that _you_ wanted to do!" Cat stood before her with anger in her eyes and an expectant look on her face. For a moment, Jade was speechless. She hadn't expected her friend for fly off the handle like that.

After staring at Cat with a shocked expression, Jade uttered, "Well I-I mean... It's not like I was _trying_ to break the dude's stuff!"

"Well, you weren't trying _not_ to!" Cat fired back. "Why won't you just apologize?!"

"I'm sorry!" She yelled, sarcastically. After seeing the dissatisfied look on Cat's face, she stood up and shouted frustratedly, "What the hell do you want from me?!"

"You're so infuriating! Why do you always have to pretend that you're right all the time?!" The redhead screamed, her head tilted slightly up in order to lock eyes with her friend.

"It's not a new thing; I'm not acting any different, so why are you so pissed off about it all of the sudden?!" Jade questioned angrily.

"Because!" Cat spat back, not quite sure how to answer the question because, in all fairness, she had a point. Jade behaved like this all the time and Cat never complained. But even though she didn't complain about it, it still bothered her every now and again. The two had been friends since elementary school and though Jade was always a bit closed and standoffish, they'd always had a fairly open relationship with each other. No, they didn't talk about every single issue, and no, they didn't have heart-to-hearts every other day, but they did talk all the time. The conversations they had were important. Even if they were talking about something silly like a television show, the conversations were long and memorable and made them feel closer to one another. Somewhere along the road, in the past few years, they stopped talking as frequently. Their conversations grew so few and far between that when they finally did talk to one another, they weren't quite sure what to say. They still called themselves "best friends," but they interacted like acquaintances. Cat didn't really know where she stood with Jade anymore. She didn't know what kind of relationship they had now, and that scared her. She was afraid that the answer would be, "No relationship at all." She supposed that's why she'd become so upset. It was just another instance of Jade avoiding a conversation they'd definitely be able to have three years ago.

"Because _why_?!" Jade shouted, clearly agitated with how vague her answer was.

"Well, I just... Like..." She mumbled, the fire in her voice almost completely gone. Cat's gaze fell to the floor as she struggled to find a way to explain her feelings.

"Spit it out!" She demanded. Her tone was audibly just as harsh, but Cat felt it soften up a bit.

Frustratedly, Cat looked back up at the raven-haired girl, "We never talk about anything! Nothing really important, at least. And like, sometimes..." she trailed off distractedly, averting her gaze once again by looking around the room at the damage caused by the earthquake.

"Sometimes?" Jade questioned with nothing more than a slight annoyance in her voice as she watched the girl look at everything in the room but her eyes.

"Well, sometimes it's like... I feel like you don't really think of me as a friend, and that really sucks because you're like the best friend I have," Cat paused for a second as she locked eyes with Jade again, gauging her response. "Because, like, everything feels sort of one-sided and stuff. I always tell you how I feel about like, everything, but whenever I ask you about stuff, you always change the subject or something. And like, you don't ever really apologize for anything."

"Cat, I-"

Sitting back down and cutting Jade off, she continued, this time her eyes aimed at the broken coffee table on the floor, "And sometimes it's fine and it doesn't bother me that much because, like, I get that it's not totally your thing but, it's like, sometimes it really hurts my feelings because you, like, don't treat me any different than you treat, like, strangers and stuff." Cat took a deep breath and sighed.

"I didn't really know you felt like that," Jade admitted, sitting down next to her friend.

"Well, you never asked," Cat replied matter-of-factly, turning her head to look at the person next to her.

"I think of you as so much more than a stranger. You really are my best friend, but it's just, really difficult for me to open up to people, Cat," Jade explained.

"But, that's what's so frustrating! You used to open up to me all the time!" Cat said standing back up, beginning to pace back and forth. "We used to talk about everything, and now, it feels like we haven't even had a real conversation since, like, before you started dating Beck." Still pacing, she looked at her hands and played with her thumbs nervously.

Jade's eyes followed the redhead around the room as she tried to explain, "We grew apa-"

"And it's so stupid because, like," Cat was rambling now, so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't heard Jade try to speak, "Now, it's like, I'm always nervous around you and I feel like if I say one wrong thing, you'll hate me or something and I know that's dumb but it's hard not to be afraid of you hating me." The redhead's breathing became shakier and she began talking even faster. "I hope you don't hate me now for yelling at you and stuff because I'm not really mad - I mean I was a little bit but I'm not really any more - I just miss being able to talk to you about stuff besides like movies and music and I miss you because we used to hang out all the time but then we stopped hanging out as much when you started dating Beck and now everything's all weird and stuff and I just miss my best friend." The last few words of her rant were muffled as she brought her hands to her face and began crying into the sleeves of her sweater. The thought of losing her best friend made Cat extremely uneasy. She was unable to stop convincing herself that she was ruining their relationship. Cautiously, Jade stood up and made her way towards her friend. Sympathetically, she put one hand on Cat's back and tried to console her.

"Can you just... not cry? Please? Stop crying, our friendship is fine. I swear, it's going to be fine. Don't cry," Jade pleaded, clearly unsure of what to say. None of her words really comforted Cat. This made Cat almost certain that their friendship was over because, usually, Jade was always able to comfort her. As she kept crying, Jade continued, "I'm sorry, okay? Really. I've been a really shitty friend to you and I ditched you for Beck and it wasn't cool and I'm really sorry. Stop crying, please, for the love of God. We're going to be okay, Cat, I promise. I'll stop being bitchy, okay?" Feeling, slightly more confident, Cat took a deep breath and wiped her tears away, still shaky.

In between sniffles, She managed to respond, "You're always bitchy." Jade removed her hand from the girl's back and spun her around to see a slight smirk on her face.

"Are you faking?!" Jade yelled irately.

"No!" Cat answered with a sincere look on her face. She began to feel a million emotions at once. She walked over to sit in an armchair as Jade followed her, standing and staring incredulously. Cat really was sad, but maybe Jade's poor attempt at comforting her actually helped. "I really am sad," the girl insisted, her smile gone and her gaze falling towards the ground.

"Then why are you making jokes?!" Jade asked running her hands through her hair, visibly stressed out.

"I wasn't, you really are a bitch," Cat stated frankly, still staring at the ground.

"Dude!" Jade exclaimed. She knew Cat meant no offense, but she was frustrated with how impossible the redhead was being.

"Well, I don't know!" the girl defended after looking back up at Jade and seeing the annoyed look on her face, "Feelings are hard!"

"What do you want?!" Jade said, more demanding than asking.

"I just want to talk more and have like, real conversations like we used to have and I want to be best friends again and I don't want us to keep drifting apart and I want things to stop being awkward," Cat explained all in one breath.

Taking time to think, Jade walked over to the couch and sat down. Solemnly, she stared at the floor for a brief moment before raising her head and locking eyes with Cat. The look in Jade's eyes told Cat that she understood what she was trying to say, which is why Cat was satisfied when Jade sighed and responded, "Alright, yeah, fine. I'll be more open and honest and stuff or whatever. Can we stop having this stupid talk now?" The room felt lighter as Cat stood from the chair and walked over to sit next to Jade.

With a bright smile on her face, she looked at her friend and said, "Yeah, we can stop," before giggling softly and admitting, "That was a weight off."

"Yeah," Jade agreed as Cat sniffled, trying to control a runny nose. "Do you need a tissue or something?"

"Probably," Cat admitted.

Jade stood up and walked away, explaining, "I saw some in the bedroom earlier."

Once her friend disappeared into the room behind her, Cat yelled, "Did you want to talk about Beck now?" In response, she heard a long, agonizing groan. "Is that a 'no?'" she questioned.

Marching back into the room and slamming the tissues down on the couch next to Cat, Jade complained, "Such an ass! He was condescending right?"

" _So_ condescending," Cat agreed with a smile on her face.

 **A/N: There you have it, the third chapter! Please please _please_ review and let me know what you think, this took me FOREVER because of how indecisive I am. Initially, I wrote this chapter from Jade's perspective, but I ended up rewriting it from Cat's perspective because it added a lot more context to her unpredictable actions. Regardless, I'd love to hear your feedback! Likes, dislikes, suggestions, anything at all! **

**(reviews totally make me update faster btw)**


	4. Bad Day?

**A/N: I know, I know, slow updates. Sorry! I'm gonna try to update more than once a month, hopefully. Thank you guys for your great reviews!**

It had been a few weeks after the breakup, and Jade was finally starting to accept the fact that Beck was no longer hers. While it was still painful to think about, she was beginning to care less and less about the boy as time went on. She wasn't quite sure whether or not that was a good or bad thing, but it was definitely happening. However, none of this made her any more prepared to wake up to a phone call from the very boy that broke her heart less than a month ago. Though she told herself to just let it go to voicemail, her fingers answered the phone anyway as if they had minds of their own.

"Hello?" Jade answered groggily as she looked at the time on her alarm clock. It was six in the morning.

"Hey! Jade, uh... I wasn't expecting you to answer," Beck chuckled nervously on the other end.

Sighing, she snapped back, "That's what happens when you call someone at six A.M. They answer. What do you want?"

"Oh, well, I just um... Trina's been spreading rumors," Beck explained wearily.

"Good for her, I don't care. What do you want?" Jade replied agitatedly. She hated being woken up and Beck knew that, so why the hell was he calling her this early? Better question, why was he calling her at all?

"Well, the rumors are about me, but they aren't true," the boy mumbled on the other end.

"So you want me to tell her to stop spreading rumors? What the hell, Beck? We broke up, you don't just get to call in favors," she said beginning to sound angry. _What's his deal?_

"No no no that's not what I meant," he defended, "I was just letting you know that the stuff she's saying isn't true. I don't like Trina."

"No one likes Trina! What's your issue?" Jade shot back, raising her voice slightly.

"No, I know, I just mean, I'm not _dating_ Trina. I just wanted to tell you because she's telling people and I didn't want you to think, well, I just, I don't want you to think I'm dating any- Trina. I don't want you to think that I'm dating Trina because I'm not," Beck explained poorly, clearly coming down with a bad case of word vomit.

"Good for you. Don't call me," the raven-haired girl ordered before hanging up the phone. Jade groaned. She was already in a bad mood and she hadn't even had her coffee yet. Knowing that she'd probably be angry for the rest of the day, she got out of bed and began getting ready for school.

* * *

Sitting in the corner of her fourth-period class, Jade scribbled away in her notebook under a section titled: SHORT FILM IDEAS. She'd been unable to focus all morning; all she could think about was Beck and his stupid phone call. Not wanting all of her negative energy to go to waste, she decided to focus it towards something creative. All of her best scripts came to her on her worst days. _E_ _very time he talks to her, her life gets... shorter? Yeah, that works._ Jade thought before quickly jotting down the idea. _Her lifespan gets shortened by a year. But he keeps talking to her anyway because he hates her. No, wait, because his life gets longer._ She began to write a few sentences before pausing and thinking, _Ugh, no, that's so stupid. What a dumb concept._ After crossing out the whole page, the raven-haired girl sighed and stared at it. She'd done nothing productive at all so far. Five minutes before lunch, Jade received a text message.

 **can we have lunch in the blackbox?**

 **-Cat**

Smiling ever-so-slightly at the idea, she replied.

 **Whatever**

 **-Jade**

 **kk cool :)**

 **-Cat**

When the bell rang, Jade shoved past a group of slow walkers and made her way to the Blackbox Theater. Upon entering the room, she saw that it was completely empty except for the small, redheaded girl laying on the stage and staring at the ceiling. Jade sighed. She really did feel bad for Cat. She hadn't realized that Mona Patterson was the actress Tori was talking about when she arrived at school that morning. Cat told her during theatre class. It was sad news, but it certainly wasn't shocking considering how old she was. Regardless, Jade knew how obsessed Cat was with Mona. One night, Cat forced her to watch an entire season of _I Married My Mom_. The dialogue was corny, the acting was bad, and the whole premise of the show was pretty far-fetched, but for some reason the bubbly girl loved it. While she didn't quite share Cat's pain, she certainly understood it. Jade made her way over to her friend and thought, _How dramatic_ , as she laid next to her, also aiming her eyes at the ceiling.

"Hi," Cat greeted glumly as Jade made herself comfortable.

"Too sad to eat?" Jade questioned as she noted the lack of food onstage. Cat nodded. "I'm sorry about Mona."

"Me too, but I'll live," Cat responded sighing before asking, "Too mad to eat?"

"Who says I'm mad? I could just not be hungry," the girl challenged. Cat shook her head.

"You've been in a pissy mood all morning," she observed, "Why?"

"Beck called me before school," Jade answered truthfully, silently cursing how intuitive Cat was when it came to her friends' emotions.

"Oliver?" she questioned.

"No, the rock band," Jade replied annoyedly.

Cat rolled her eyes and asked, "What did he want?" ignoring Jade's sarcasm.

"He told me that Trina says they're dating but he wanted me to know they're not? I don't know. It was weird and annoying and he woke me up at six for nothing," the girl explained, riling herself up with the memory.

"Aw, that's kind of cute," Cat said smiling. Confusedly, Jade turned and looked at her.

"What? What do you mean, 'cute?' He woke me up and gave me useless information after barely speaking to me for weeks!" Jade said slightly irritated.

"Well, like, he didn't want you to think that he's over you, and he called super early so it was the first thing he thought about when he woke up. It's just cute I don't know. He still likes you," Cat explained, still smiling and staring at the ceiling.

"Bullshit," Jade scoffed, returning her gaze to its original position.

"No, really! Why else would he do that?" the redhead argued.

"Because he's stupid?" Jade answered.

"Jadey, be serious," Cat whined, "He probably wants you back."

"I am being serious, Cat, Beck is an idiot. He does idiotic things, like breaking up with his girlfriend of three years through a door," the raven haired girl countered, saying the last part through gritted teeth. "Maybe _I_ don't want _him_ back."

Turning to face her friend, Cat questioned, "But, I'm confused now. I thought you still cared about him. You don't?"

"No, not really. Well, kind of, I don't know," Jade shook her head, "It's complicated."

"Explain it to me," Cat pushed.

Jade sighed, "I'm not sure if I can. He's annoying and stupid and I hate him, but at the same time, I miss him a lot. But I feel like he's not even Beck anymore. He's not the same person, not the person I care about. I guess I just, I miss the _idea_ of Beck. I don't know. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," Cat nodded, "that makes sense." Just then, the two girls heard a loud bang near the theater doors. Sitting up, Cat and Jade looked in the direction of the sound to see that a small box of science equipment had been dropped on the floor. Standing awkwardly behind the box was Tori Vega with a guilty, apologetic expression on her face. Cat watched as Jade's whole mood changed in an instant.

"Eavesdrop much?!" Jade yelled at the girl.

Even Cat gave Tori an annoyed look and added, "Not cool."

"How long have you been standing there?!" Jade shouted, pissed off.

"Not long! Just, uh, like, thirty seconds or so?" Tori scrambled to pick up the contents of the box as she continued, "I-I thought Cat and I could work on our project at lunch but I, uh, couldn't find her and she wasn't answering my texts, so I asked Robbie and he said she might be in here, but I didn't know that, um, you know, _you'd_ be here too, and when I walked in you guys were talking and stuff and I mean, you know, I didn't want to, like, interrupt or anything,"

"So you decided to listen in on our conversation instead of just saying, 'excuse me?!'" Jade questioned with rage in her voice.

"Well, no! I mean, kind of. Look, I just _really_ want to work on this pr-"

"Go!" Jade screamed.

"You know, actually, we can just work on it after school so I think I'm gonna head out," Tori explained, chuckling nervously as she backed slowly towards the door before sprinting away.

Cat sighed as Jade groaned, "Ugh, I can't stand her! She's so irritating! Does she absolutely _have_ to come with us to Mona Patterson's house?"

"Jadey, we have to do our project tonight. It's due tomorrow," Cat said exasperatedly.

Jade rolled her eyes and asked, "How do you hang out with her? She's awful!"

"She's not that bad," Cat defended. "She can be really fun."

"Yeah, if Tori's fun then so is getting mauled by a bear. Actually, being mauled by a bear seems more fun than hanging out with Tori. Let's do that tonight instead!" Jade said pretending to be excited. Cat sighed dramatically.

"Will you at least _try_ to get along?" Cat asked - though it was more of a plea than a question.

"I doubt it," Jade answered honestly.

Cat laid back down on the stage and groaned, "This is gonna be a long night."

* * *

"I can't believe she fell asleep!" Tori complained from the passenger seat, throwing her hands in the air. "There's no way we'll finish in time."

"Don't talk to me," Jade commanded, her eyes locked on the road in front of them. Tori sighed and moved the project to the backseat floor, directly under Cat's face. Part of her hoped that the smell of Fat Santa's cage would wake the small girl.

Leaning over to check the speedometer, Tori exclaimed, "Jade! You're going fifteen miles over!" Jade groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Arrest me, then," she challenged.

"Slow down!" Tori cried.

"Oh my god, shut _up._ It's like one in the morning, I want to get home," Jade defended.

"We're not going to make it home if we get pulled over! We already passed the halfway point miles ago, there's no need to go that fast," The younger Vega sister argued.

"Bite me," Jade replied as she pressed down harder on the gas pedal, making the car accelerate even more.

"Stop it! You could get us killed! What is _wrong_ with you?!" Tori screamed. As Tori panicked, Jade chuckled. After a few moments, she took her foot off of the gas and let the car coast back down to a few miles above the speed limit. "What the hell, Jade?!"

While Tori caught her breath, Jade glanced in the rearview mirror and locked eyes with Cat, who she knew was only pretending to sleep. The redheaded girl smiled and silently mouthed, "Whee!"

After recovering, Tori spoke again, "Seriously, Jade, are you insane?!"

Shifting her eyes from Cat back to the road, Jade sighed, "Don't talk to me." Before Tori had the chance to respond, a buzzing noise came from the back seat.

"Ooh! Jadey, Beck texted you!" Cat exclaimed.

"Good for him!" Jade said sarcastically, mocking Cat's cheery tone.

Tori whipped her head around to face the bubbly redhead and shouted, "Cat, you're awake?!" Cat set down Jade's phone and slowly closed her eyes.

"No?" she answered, hoping Tori would still believe she was sleeping.

"How long have you been awake?!" Tori asked, shocked.

"God, you're so gullible. She never fell asleep," Jade remarked as she rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Cat, can we _please_ finish this project?" Tori begged, shrugging off Jade's comment.

"No!" Cat whined, sitting up. "I'm so tired of science! Can we just wait till we get home?"

"God, fine! Ugh we're going to be up all night," Tori complained. Jade's phone buzzed yet again, this time from Cat's hand.

Tapping Jade's shoulder, Cat informed, "Beck texted again. He says he-"

"I don't care," Jade said coldly, cutting her friend off.

"Beck still texts you?" Tori asked.

"Yeah!" Cat answered gleefully from the back seat as Jade rolled her eyes.

Shifting her gaze from Jade to Cat, Tori began prying even further, asking, "Why? What kind of stuff does he say?"

"Well I think it's just because he misses her but Jadey thinks it's because he wants to bother her. He says all sorts things though. Like, this one says that he 'dealt with the Trina situation' which probably means that he found a way to sto-"

"Cat!" Jade shouted.

"Whatty?" The redhead questioned, genuinely confused.

"Stop telling Tori about my personal life! I hate her!" Jade demanded.

"Okay, I'm _right here_!" Tori yelled offendedly.

"I wish you weren't!" Jade shot back.

"Stop fighting!" Cat screamed from behind them, grabbing their attention. "I'm tired of hearing you bicker all the time, you guys are so annoying! Just shut up and play music or something, God!"

"Sorry, Cat," Tori sighed as she hung her head low.

"Whatever," Jade mumbled, staring straight ahead. Tori switched on the car radio and the sound of staticky, garbled, pop music flooded the car. No one spoke another word for the rest of the ride home.

 **A/N: Jade seemed a little more angry than usual at the beginning of this episode, so this is my take on the reason why. I hope you all like it! Please review!**


End file.
